Oneness and the Course..

I became a student of A Course in Miracles in the mid-eighties. I heard the name of the book and I knew it was real. Yes..I know..but empaths do that sort of thing. We just know. I have spent around thirty years of my life trying to complete it because it's required. I'd get through most of it, and then I'd become sidetracked by my ego and come back to it, sometimes years later. Once you know about it, you have to do it. No matter how long it takes. I drove my family nuts with all the "things only have the meaning you give them" comments. Although not a religion, it references Christian terms, but it's more than that. The Course redefined my understanding of God and myself in a way that I had never thought of before. Honestly, if everyone knew what the Course says, our view of religion would change completely. And it probably should given how people have used religion for their own nefarious purposes. Religion, in and of itself, is fine. It creates community and teaches people to be loving to each other. But as we all know, this can go awry and all kinds of destructive things can result. 

I've always been interested in the "how" of things. How is even more important to me than "why". So when it became clear to me from my study that oneness was more than just a spiritual concept, I was intrigued. And after you know that, just try and get mad at people. Go ahead..try to condemn them completely. Pretty soon, you start thinking about how they became so awful that they deserve your wrath in the first place. That gives way to, say it with me now, understanding. Anger gives way by then to forgiveness and pretty soon, not only can you not be mad at anyone, you actually find yourself becoming concerned about them instead of condemning them. How is that even possible when you felt so justified? Of course those who are immersed in their "me-ness" might have a problem with all of this, but separation, divisiveness, and disunity are at the root of the world's problems, so individuality be damned.

So back to the notion, we are one. What does that actually mean? I attended a lecture last May given by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, where he affirmed this very premise. In my study of A Course in Miracles, I discovered that oneness actually exists on the metaphysical level. We are one, because we are one. We only look separate because we chose to be separate. The Sonship is actually all of us, as one. We are also one with the Holy Spirit, the Voice for the Creator, as well as with the Creator. We can choose to forgive (the Atonement) and return home, or delay that return by choosing the ego (body). We cannot choose both. It's either one or the other. We either choose oneness with the Creator (which is reality) or oneness with our ego (unreality). The Course says:

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.

What an amazing concept! If true, then this world is an illusion and apparently only necessary so that we can forgive ourselves for separating from the Creator in the first place. We accomplish this by forgiving others. Since we're all one anyway, by forgiving others, we forgive ourselves. This is the miracle the Course speaks of. It brings love to each of us and undoes fear. It acknowledges the worth of all. Miracles are thoughts so loving that they heal involuntarily, apart from our own direction. True healing we leave to the Holy Spirit. All we're asked to do is to remember that we are one and as such cannot judge anyone. If we are indeed one, then any judgment we make of others is judgment upon ourselves. 

We blame and attack each other for problems that, more often than not, arise from our own perceptions. We make this stuff up out of whole cloth, creating drama in an effort to dominate others. Instead of understanding this is all a script that was written long ago that we come back here time and again to relive, we view what's happening as real. Except that drama is often threatening. And as we know from the aforementioned quote, if the drama was real, nothing about it can be threatening. In other words, if the drama were from the Creator, then it would be real and all-encompassing. Instead, it's from our minds. We create the mess that doesn't actually exist and if we only turned away from it, we would be fine. We would remember that we're part of something that is so much greater than anything we can conceive of here in this existence. We exist in peace and love. We can exist that way here by viewing everyone and everything as holy and engage in the Holy Instant with everyone, free from judgment, and full of love.

And that's not always easy, and we're always looking to see if forgiveness "took". Unfortunately, that's also judgment, and considered to be an attack upon the very person we're forgiving..as well as ourselves (that whole oneness thing again). And really, is there a choice to be made at all? We tell ourselves that there is, but there isn't if we want to live in truth. Life here in corporeal existence is hard. We dodge minefields everywhere. If we actually believed that we were part of a greater spirit that is complete love and joy, wouldn't we focus on that? Somehow, we've decided the world of the ego is more interesting, so we focus our efforts on building that world, instead of turning back to the only world that really exists..Heaven. 

All that happened was misdirected thought. When everyone understands this, this world will no longer exist because it won't need to. Learning will have been accomplished and oneness will again be all that is.

NOTE: Quotations are from A Course in Miracles. Foundation for Inner Peace. 2007.
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Sunday's Runecasting.

As a student of A Course in Miracles, I relate my work with runes to the basic premise of the Course.. “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God”. A three rune spread works well for this purpose.

I felt moved to use an amethyst set of runes today instead of my usual apple wood set. Amethyst is a stone of protection and spirituality, fostering spiritual growth and a connection to the divine. Today, I pulled Fehu, Jera, and Dagaz. Typically, a three rune spread will involve Issue, Action and Outcome.

Fehu is represented by cattle, or the herd. It’s the first rune of the first Aett. It’s where we begin in life. We begin our corporeal existence as one of the herd. Fehu suggests that we become more independent with time. Time is the key word here which will have more meaning when I discuss the significance of Jera. Fehu also represents wealth, earned income, position, status. But as we know from the Course, these things are illusions created by the ego, using the past to judge, furthering the separation from each other and the Creator. In my view then, Fehu suggests that true wealth is spiritual in nature and cannot be threatened by the illusory nature of this world.

Jera is represented by time..in this case the Year. It suggests the universe is indifferent to what goes on here. Another way of saying this, is that the Creator makes no judgement. The Course teaches that judgement belongs to the Creator and not to us. That does not mean that the Creator sits around judging any of us..because She does not. Time is attached to the past and, therefore, judgement. Time is a linear construct, relevant only to this world. It doesn’t exist in spirit. It is of the ego; therefore, it is not real. Because as we know, “nothing unreal exists”. Fehu represents not only growth and development, but also erosion and decay...the essential impermanence of this corporeal existence.

Dagaz is represented by the light of Day. Transcending time, it suggests realization or enlightenment. One would think this is the result of a journey, and I suppose in one sense it is, except it’s a journey to what already is. It’s a shift in perspective, or perhaps a realization that perspective is judgement and not relevant at all. We live along the horizontal plane in this life, but as we realize what we actually are, miracles collapse time, and eventually all that’s left is the vertical plane where we truly reside. That’s what’s meant by As Above, So Below..the oneness of the vertical plane where All are One.  Where “herein lies the peace of God”.

To sum up, we are one. We can delude ourselves into thinking this isn’t true, or that it takes time to work out all of our problems so that we can then become one. Actually, the problems we believe we have are actually illusion. The Creator doesn’t even see them. Our wealth, our Fehu is spiritual in nature. It’s our reality that never ceases, no matter how hard we try to forget it. The action in this case, Jera, shows us that time is an illusion and we have only to remember who we are. Time collapses and we move closer to truth. Which brings us to the outcome, Dagaz. It is who we are. We live in the peace of God because we are the peace of God. 

This was a wonderful runecasting today. 

Quotation from A Course In Miracles..